Storage Reviews

LaCie's Little Big Disk is the Thunderbolt drive your MacBook Pro has been waiting for. It's a fact of life that, while it's rarely cheap to be an early adopter, you do get to have the best toys: a nearly palm-sized twin SSD external drive that looks like a friendlier HAL 9000 and promises previously unseen levels of data transfer speed. Problem is, that speed comes with a $899 price tag; can the Little Big Disk make a Big Strong Case for all that cash? Read on for the full SlashGear review.

With services like Apple's iCloud and Google Cloud Music, it's easy to assume that the future of our data is putting it safe on someone else's servers. There's another option, however, in hosting your own cloud - and backup system - with a NAS. Synology has made a name for itself with flexible, affordable Network Attached Storage that doesn't fall short on performance, and the DiskStation DS712+ is the latest to target home and small business users. Twin drive support, copious multimedia streaming options and the promise of super-fast data rates: there's a lot to like about the DS712+ on paper at least. Check out how it holds up in the full SlashGear review.

The ToughTech Duo QR portable storage system from CRU-Dataport features a two-drive RAID array that packs large capacity and high performance into a tiny yet rugged package that’s easy to setup and use. The device is designed for professional photographers and digital media artists who need to carry and protect their digital assets while out on the field or in the studio.

Backup devices are generally at the "less glamorous" end of the gadget scale, but ironically some of the most important. Not having the very latest smartphone or gaming device may be frustrating, but not as much as discovering the hard-drive in your computer has crashed and taken with it all your files, multimedia and other content. LaCie is hoping its CloudBox will prevent some of those headaches, a local/cloud double-act that pairs a simple network drive with a companion web backup service. Setup is, so the promise goes, simple; problem is, you pay for that convenience. Is the CloudBox heaven-sent or an unwelcome stormfront? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.

The Iomega Home Media Hard Drive, Cloud Edition is a network attached storage (NAS) that will not only store and backup your data, but also let you share and access it via the web. These days, it seems like everything computing is heading towards the cloud, which has come to be known as storing your data on remote servers so that it can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. This convenience typically comes with a monthly cost and may not be ideal for those who have a lot of data or prefer to have their data stored locally. This is where Iomega’s Cloud Edition NAS hopes to save the day.

Fast, silent and power-efficient; it seems like the only thing not to like about SSDs is the price. OCZ has sent over its Vertex 2 SSD, a 120GB model that straddles the performance/price boundary at around $220. Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.

It's not often you find an internal drive where the manufacturer has given obvious thought to aesthetics, but Samsung's new 256GB 470 Series SSD bucks the trend. From its Apple-style packaging to its distinctive casing, the SSD certainly stands out from the crowd. Has Samsung spent too much time on unnecessary design and not enough on performance, though? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.

The Synology DiskStation DS211 isn't the company's first NAS to cross the SlashGear test bench, but it's perhaps the most home-user focused model so far. A two-bay network-attached backup box, the DS211 also throws in DLNA media streaming duties and cross-platform compatibility. With a diskless retail price of around $320, is this the box you should be entrusting your data security to? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.

If there's one thing we're used to seeing on mobile devices of late, it's "microSD cards up to 32GB supported." Problem is, when it actually comes to fitting maximum-size microSDHC cards inside, your choices have been relatively limited and generally expensive. Kingston is aiming to change that, with a 32GB Class 4 memory card that promises both performance and a sub-$100 street price. Is this the card your smartphone has been waiting for?

We're spoiled for choice when it comes to external hard drives, and given a large number of people base their decision primarily on price-per-gigabyte, a manufacturer has to offer something compelling if they want to stand out from the crowd. Iomega's latest eGo drive offers both 1TB and USB 3.0, complete with a semi-ruggedized chassis. Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.